Andrew McVeigh, managing partner at Remara, said on the latest SMSF Adviser podcast that over the past 18 months the property market has been a difficult landscape for most people to invest in.
“You’ve seen the equity markets are pretty volatile. You’ve got some good opportunities, some bad opportunities, a lot of sideways movement and the same kind of thing with real estate and particularly investment properties,” McVeigh said.
“Probably the biggest challenge that you see for most people in their investment portfolio with an investment property is they might not be positively geared anymore as a result of those interest rate increases.”
McVeigh said although rents have increased, they have not kept pace with the underlying rate increases and now the capital growth that used to get through the price increase doesn’t exist because of higher interest rates.
“So you kind of get hit twice on the income and the growth side from a real estate asset when you’re in the rate rise cycle.”
“While there might be rate cuts, our expectation on real estate is it still will probably track sideways for a period of time.”
When there is some correction in the economy, he continued, there will also need to be a correction in liquidity profiles.
“We look at the equity market and the property market as one that will probably have still a few challenges over the next 12 to 18 months,” he said.
“That’s where we’re pretty bullish on our credit offering and our credit opportunities because it gives you the opportunity to select a risk profile that fits your needs for your portfolio. It also gives you the ability to select a liquidity profile that is really key for your needs as well.”
“Liquidity is king, cash is king and the ability to gain access to your investments into your cash is critical and will be critical through this timeframe. What’s interesting, and where we see an opportunity set for investors, particularly the SMSF investors in this market through our credit offerings is in and around those term accounts because they offer fixed returns.”
He added that with fixed-term accounts there is no RBA exposure and investors essentially get a fixed return over a 12-month time frame, and if rates change a fixed option offers the ability to get a little bit of performance.
He warned that although it is a difficult environment in which to invest, credit which offers a pool of underlying credit contracts is also substantially diversified and there is no single obligor risk.
“And essentially you get a good snapshot across essentially a whole Australian economy to prime borrowers with secured contracts.”
